I wish this place was in Raleigh so it was much closer to my house, but my fat ass is thanking them for not actually being nearby. The first introduction I had to Rise was at a meeting where someone offered me one of their donuts. I was like…eh…no thanks. Then I was told they are special donuts and was shown the box. I opted for the crème brulee donut with low expectations of it tasting anything like that. This rarely happens, but it did this time….I was WRONG! It was so good and actually tasted just like crème brulee and even had the brulee coating on the top of the donut. I first cut myself 1/4 of the donut….due to the fat ass I am hauling around, but of course ended up eating the entire damn thing!
So, here I am last Friday with the day off with the kids and decided to take them out there to Rise. The very sad outcome was that by the time we got there (it was after lunch time), they had sold out of the crème brulee donut as well as a number of others I was hoping to try. We ended up getting a dozen of various ones they had left (glazed, glazed topped with chocolate, apple fritter and the maple bacon).
As you will see, the maple bacon literally has an entire slab of bacon on it and is coated with a maple flavored topping. I would say it is an acquired taste, but as far as I am concerned….this Jew says you can put bacon on anything! I enjoyed the plain glazed and surprisingly the chocolate one too (it is almost like a ganache on top). However, the real shock was the apple fritter, which I have to give Dylan credit for as that was his choice. Holy hell that was fucking amazing!!! I wish I had bought more than one as we all fought over eating it and it was gone in less than two minutes. 🙁 It just had a subtle taste of apple, the texture was fantastic, not messy to eat and was just absolutely tasty. Here is a picture of their donut menu that day (again they were already sold out of a lot of them). They organize them by old school, new school and our school (clever of them). If I could, I would have of course had the crème brulee, but the other standouts that I have to try are the cinnamon twist, salted caramel (they had me at salt) and the pineapple basil for shits and giggles even though it does not sound overly appealing. Check out their menu daily though as it changes and they have some other combinations that sound mind blowing.
Sadly, I did not have a chance try any of their biscuits as we had already eaten lunch, but will absolutely being going back for that as they smelled amazing and looked great. Below is that menu and clearly I need to try one with both jalapenos and the pimiento cheese (giddy inside thinking about that). I am impressed to see that they actually have their own handmade sausage patties, the fried eggplant bacon is a curious one too. Lots of neat options, so a definite must do and I will be going back for sure!!!
I will note that they have a pre-order option, which I would highly consider doing. The only thing that this place is missing for me on the menu is a rocking bloody mary!!!
RISE is good, however, DUCK DONUTS is better.